Probable Cause

Another in New Hughes continuing series of video clips from the back-to-back press conferences by the prohibitionist Smart Approaches to Marijuana MN and the anti-prohibition Cannabis Coalition MN held at the Minnesota State Capitol on Januaru 16, 2019.

Here we rip the veil from the statements of James Backstrom, Dakota County Prosecutor. His spiel was not only internally contradictory, it also promulgated the false idea that cannabis (or marijuana, as he calls it) is one of the major causes of the high rate of drug-related crime - in Dakota County and across Minnesota. First he claims that 40% of his cases involve cannabis, then claims that only 0.5% of incarcerated people are there for marijuana. For both of those statements to be true, either his is a very inneffective prosecutor, or marjuana is a very small part of drug crimes.

Backstrom also failed to point out that quite often, marijuana is the probable cause that police and sheriffs use to criminalize people in order to impound their vehicles and otherwise profit from their low level offenses. The police profit and the lives of those they profit from are ruined. As Marcus Harcus points out at the start of the clip, African Americans are 800% more likely to be targeted by these "law enforcement" schemes than white people in Minnesota. No wonder, John Thompson is angry.